Biodegradable gastric stent delivers up to twice the drainage in lab

After weight-loss surgery, a gastric leak can turn a small complication into infection, a prolonged hospital stay and another medical procedure. Researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi have now tested BRIDGE, a biodegradable, 3D-printed gastric stent designed for that problem. In laboratory tests, it delivered up to twice the drainage performance of conventional stents.

The redesign is hidden inside the device. Rather than changing the stent’s overall shape, Parima Phowarasoontorn and colleagues in Khalil Ramadi’s lab engineered an internal lattice to improve flexibility, fluid flow and resistance to kinking. The device withstood bends more than seven times tighter without kinking, helping it continue draining in complex anatomy.

The other change addresses what happens after healing. Current drainage stents were originally designed for bile ducts rather than the stomach and must be removed once treatment is complete. BRIDGE uses a biodegradable material that, the researchers say, can safely break down after treatment, potentially removing the need for that second procedure.

So what changes for patients, concretely? If the design works in later testing, treating a gastric leak could involve stronger drainage during healing and no separate stent-removal procedure. That could reduce the burden of care for people who already face a serious complication after surgery. For now, the evidence comes from laboratory testing, not patient treatment.

The study was reported by NYU Abu Dhabi researchers in Device. Additional preclinical and clinical studies are still required before BRIDGE can be used in patients, and the team has not established that the laboratory performance will translate directly to clinical outcomes.